A practitioner's manual · free to read

Learn how market makers price the spread

Every market has someone quoting both sides. This book explains who they are, why the spread exists, and how to compute it — taking you from your first order book to designing, testing, and operating market-making algorithms on real venues.

chapters
20
real venues
6
interactive figures
30
strategy proposals
6
Order books·Inventory risk·Adverse selection·Avellaneda–Stoikov·Microstructure signals·Kalshi·Polymarket·Hyperliquid·Binance·IBKR & Alpaca·Algorithm catalog·Risk & operations·

Foundations

What an order book is, how exchanges match trades, and what a market maker actually does — assuming zero prior trading knowledge.

The mathematics

Inventory risk, adverse selection, and the optimal-quoting models behind every serious desk — built up step by step with interactive figures.

Practice

Six real venues from Kalshi to Binance, a catalog of production algorithms, a hands-on crypto practicum, and six original strategy proposals.

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